“If they do, I haven’t heard about it.” I noticed another customer at the end of the bar and excused myself to serve him.
When I returned, she asked, “Stark isn’t one to lose. Is there any concern he’ll retaliate?”
I shrugged. “By doing what? The people were clear they didn’t want him around. If he’s a businessman, it would seem like a better idea to find another place to build his prison.”
“You do know he has a large home on the outskirts of Salvation?”
“More like a compound,” I quipped at the ostentatious walled-in complex that didn’t fit with the conservative rural town. “It’s my understanding that he doesn’t live there, though. I’d think Salvation was too small for a man like Stark.”
She arched a brow. “Why do you say that?”
“We’re not flashy people, Ms. Edmonds—“
“Call me Erica.”
“Life is slow here. Someone like Stark would get bored.”
“Hmm.” She took more notes on her pad. “So why do you think he’s stuck around?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.”
“Hey Ryder, how about a beer,” one of my regulars called out as he took a seat at the bar. I poured him his regular draft and served him.
When I returned to the reporter, she smiled in a way that felt more than professional or friendly. She pulled out her card from her tailored coat pocket and extended it to me.
As I took it, her hand brushed mine, and I knew for sure she was interested. There was a time I might have responded to that.
“If you can think of anything else that I should know for this story, please give me a call,” she said.
I gave her a non-committal shrug. “I doubt I’ll have anything.”
“Keep it anyway. Just in case.” She slipped from the barstool and sauntered to the door.
“You should call her, Ry,” one of my regulars said as he too watched her leave. “I think she has more she wants to investigate.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
I thought he was probably right. I laughed good-naturedly, but I wasn’t going to be calling her for a story or something more personal.
I shoved her card into my pocket, intending to give it to Sinclair. She’d be a better person to talk about Stark and his shading dealings.
Me? I was too infatuated with my fake wife to consider spending time with another woman.
12
Trina
It was amazing how a perky, pretty recent coed could ruin the beautiful mood I’d had after a night, and morning, naked with Ryder. This morning, after he made me breakfast, and then fucked me on the dining table, I arrived at work feeling good. Really good. And then Brooke and the Mayor showed up, all smiles for each other that made me suspicious. But then she handed me a folder with work done that was under my purview.
“Who asked you to do this?” I demanded.
“Mayor Valentine.” Her blue eyes shone with innocence but I didn’t buy it. Not wanting to get in trouble for yelling at his favorite pet now that Sinclair was off the market, I waved her off. I went through the work she’d done expecting to have to redo it, but dammit, it was nearly perfect.
Normally, my annoyance at work came from incompetent coworkers, but Brooke was irking me to no end by her efficiency. Not only that, but she seemed determined to become the mayor’s right-hand woman, which was my job. There’s no way I was going to let that happen!
Sinclair was out in my area of the office going through some files as I grumbled about Brooke’s attempt to ingratiate herself to the mayor and steal my job. Sinclair was listening with only half an ear, but basically told me I was nuts. Just because Brooke was a contentious worker didn’t mean she was after my job, Sinclair told me.
I started to list all the reasons she was trying to get my job, starting with all the work the mayor was handing her way that was in my job description, when Holly St. James walked into the office.
“Oh hey Holly,” Sinclair said. I noted a tone of relief in her voice. Was Sinclair annoyed at me?
“Hi, Sinclair. Trina.” Holly had been the teacher of Sinclair and Wyatt’s daughter, Alyssa, and had enlisted their help in the 4-H program at school. “I hope I’m not dropping in at a bad time, but I wanted to talk to you about a fundraiser for the library. I’d like to raise money for new books.”
“Now is a great time to meet,” Sinclair said. “I just have one more thing to finish, but you can wait in my office and we can see about getting new books for the school library.”
As Holly made her way to the office, Sinclair stepped up to me. “You’re unusually grumpy—”
“More than usual. What’s going on?”
“I told you. I don’t like feeling like some little coed is batting her eyes at the mayor trying to take my job.”
Sinclair studied me with a light shake of her head. It irked me to no end that she didn’t see what was going on.
“Listen, I know you have a hard time with change—”
“It’s not the change, Sinclair. It’s that he’s handing over my job to her.” I jabbed my fists into my hips. I knew I was a difficult person at times, but this wasn’t one of those times.
“Which is freeing you up to focus on the stuff you do best,”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “So you’re in on this?”
She huffed out a breath. “There’s no ‘in’ to be in on. You know we used to have more support staff. We had the money to refill a position so we did. Trina what’s really going on. Is this fake marriage with Ryder?”
“No.” Of all the things in my life, that was the one area that I’d have expected to be off the rails that actually was going all right. “I don’t like my job being handed over to someone else without my
